The Legend of Tokyo Taoist

Chapter 738: The Narrow Gate (9)

After playing these pictures, the children's reactions varied. Most of them were scared and felt disgusted, but a few showed interest, especially the older children, who were at the age of middle school and liked everything that was unique.

The teacher standing by took a notebook and silently wrote down everyone's reactions, making circles and crosses on them from time to time.

In the classroom, the person with the clearest figure was Ninety-Nine. Qian Xiaoyi saw fear and gritted teeth on his face. His body was shaking, but he still forced himself to watch those horrible images.

After finishing this class, the teacher on the stage started playing other images, but this time they were not disgusting pictures, but myths from various cultures, which looked very ordinary.

However, these contents have not yet involved the teaching of Hope itself, and it seems that it is still in the preparation stage. Perhaps after these children are "promoted to the next grade", more detailed "teaching" will be carried out.

After the morning classes ended, the atmosphere suddenly began to relax. The children came to the yard outside, chatted with some kind uncles and aunts, did handicrafts, cooked, and played games together. It was like a big family. Many children showed their childish nature here, and there was constant laughter.

Qian Xiaoyi stood aside and observed silently. These people looked much more normal, without the signs of cruelty and inhumanity of the disciplinarians. However, Qian Xiaoyi knew that those who could come here and come into contact with these children were probably believers of the Church of Hope. This was further establishing the connection between the children and the Church of Hope.

Moreover, Qian Xiaoyi did not find any trace of "Class A" and "Class B". He was afraid that those children were already moving on to the next stage.

The scene repeated itself twice, and a new scene came. This afternoon, the people who came in were the parents of these children. They flocked to this secret base, comforted the children lovingly, and asked them how they were doing.

Qian Xiaoyi could hear some parents scolding their children for not working hard and why they were still in Class D, while others were crying while hugging their children.

But at this time, all the voices were vague, only Jiujiu and his father were clear.

"Heita, are you doing okay? Are you feeling uncomfortable?"

"Dad, I want to go home, I want to go to school... I don't want to study here, the courses here are so terrible..."

"Heita, I miss you too, but have you forgotten? Our promise? Don't you want to see your mother again?"

"I think... Dad, if I can get that power, can I really see Mom again?"

"Yes, Heita, that's what they told me, and I've actually seen this miracle with my own eyes! As long as you can gain their approval... please, just keep going, even if it's for mom, as long as you succeed, we can be like before..."

"Hmm~"

Qian Xiaoyi shook his head. It seemed that the families who sent their children here had been squeezed dry by the Hope Cult to the point of desperation. They had no way out, so they could only hope that their children could "awaken" that strange power.

Next, the scene in front of Qian Xiaoyi kept changing. As time passed, there were fewer and fewer children in Class D. Jiujiu insisted on going to the next class. He came to Class C. The teaching process here was not much different, but the pictures played in the class were more terrifying and weird, which made the children more mentally collapsed.

Now, shadows that were not visible in reality gradually appeared in Jiujiu's field of vision. He could no longer tell which of these shadows were real and which were illusions created by his fear.

What surprised him was that those enthusiastic children who were not afraid at all and had even adapted to these courses were asked to leave and were eliminated. Perhaps this was actually a blessing for those children.

Only people like him who had hallucinations due to fear stayed behind and were merged into Class B, which shared some courses with the most mysterious Class A.

When he came to Class B, he found that the atmosphere here was completely different from the previous classes. During class, the students in Class A always looked at the students in Class B with a superior look, and the students in Class B also looked at the new students like Jiujiu with the same look, just like looking at monkeys, as if they were not the same species at all. The teachers were no longer so strict, but became gentle, no longer beating and scolding them at will, as if once they entered here, they would become the future masters of this place, and all the students were looking forward to making further progress.

Looking at the last group of children who transferred to the class, the original children were whispering unscrupulously.

"It took so long to get here, what a useless bunch of guys."

"Haha, didn't you see the number on his desk? Ninety-nine, the last batch of children to come in."

"No matter what his number is, he is one of the last few people to transfer in, which means his talent has only just reached this point. Look at his expression, he is so timid, he will definitely not make it."

"It doesn't matter. Don't worry about that guy. As long as we can hold on and get that power, we can get to Class A."

Although they were whispering, they did not avoid Jiujiu's ears and even discussed it face to face. Perhaps it was because they had seen too many people being eliminated and thus became numb.

After arriving at Class B, the new course finally arrived.

Jiujiu and other children were led to a room. The walls of this room were covered with symbols of various cultures, making it look messy and depressing.

Then, they saw those familiar uncles and aunts. At this time, those uncles and aunts were all wearing black hoods and had strange expressions on their faces that were not usually seen.

They let Jiujiu sit in the middle of the room, and the usually kind uncles and aunts surrounded him and began to chatter to him about family matters, complaining about various trivial matters and their own troubles, without doing anything out of line.

But in this ordinary conversation, Jiujiu vaguely saw that some black shadows began to emanate from the people around him, and those ordinary words poured into his brain like a spell...

“I see…” Qian Xiaoyi looked at the scene expressionlessly: “These people… are all Aquarius Envoys. This ritual is to let the Aquarius Envoys instill the cognition of despair into these children, making them the vessels that bear the cognition of despair.”

Every day after that, Jiujiu would experience this kind of experience. In the dormitory, he could even hear some children suddenly breaking down and screaming in the middle of the night, as if they were haunted by a nightmare and could no longer distinguish reality.

Now he lives in the dormitory of Class B, and I heard that everyone in Class A has a separate room.

The children who collapsed in their sleep were dragged away directly by the outside supervisors. It was obvious that they were eliminated and sent back home, while the other children continued to sleep without paying any attention.

Those children who collapsed in the middle of the night were still relatively safe. What was even more tragic were those children who collapsed during the ceremony. Their spirits would completely collapse during the ceremony, and it might take them a long time to recover, or they might not be able to recover at all.

This phenomenon happened many times. The number of people in Class B kept decreasing, and only one or two people were able to continue to be promoted to the next class. The other children had become completely numb, quietly waiting for their own collapse, and could not even feel fear, except for Ninety-Nine.

The people Jiujiu knew had long since disappeared, and he witnessed with his own eyes the classmates who were promoted to the same class collapse one by one. This made him even more frightened, because he understood that it would soon be his turn.

Until he noticed someone, a student in Class A who he could only look up to.

--she.

(End of this chapter)